


nothing more noble, nothing more venerable

by quillieur



Series: mankind is poised midway between the gods and the beasts [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, One Shot, Short One Shot, god AU, no beta we die like tommy in prison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-26 19:33:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30110925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quillieur/pseuds/quillieur
Summary: Tommy is loyal.He'd quite like to change that, actually.
Series: mankind is poised midway between the gods and the beasts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2212587
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	nothing more noble, nothing more venerable

**Author's Note:**

> there is a reference to tommy's exile arc in here and all that entails! it doesn't go into detail, but if you'd like to skip it, it starts at the second "(And gods don't die, not until one does..." and ends at the end of that paragraph, "...his almost-brother had)"
> 
> take care of yourselves, ily! <3

Tommy knows loyalty a bit too well. 

He’s stood side by side with tyrannical dictators of nations long dead, been driven out of countries he could never quite part from, and almost died from trying to pull someone from the edge. 

(He tries not to think about how gods couldn’t die, how Insanity faltered, how Insanity had a sword driven through his chest. It doesn’t work, but at least he tries.)

Loyalty, in Tommy’s mind, is not grey. Loyalty is black and white, left or right, action or inaction. You can’t be half-loyal to someone; he knows from experience that once a choice is made, it’s hard to go back. 

Once you’re falling, it’s impossible to fly. 

Tommy is loyal. It’s practically in his blood, written into his genes and fated amongst the stars. Tommy is loyal because he has to be, because a god doesn’t choose their domain, and oh, how he wishes he could change his. 

Loyal enough to give up his prized possessions for a country he no longer believed in, loyal enough to plan a coup instead of giving up and moving on, loyal enough to stay. 

It’s almost funny, if he could muster up the energy to laugh. The one thing he’s cursed to do is the thing that he so desperately wishes he could change. 

Tommy is loyal, so when Words turn into Insanity and Blood arrives with a too-sharp sword, he stays. He leaves, once or twice, goes beyond the spruce forest and sees snow and marvels at the untouched, pure whiteness of it. 

He always returns to the glorified hole in the ground that he just can’t seem to fight. 

Blood sparks and Choice falls and throughout it all Tommy stays. He stays and he helps to heal and he doesn’t leave the ravine in what feels like years, fists red and raw and face bruised in a cruel mockery of faith. He stays and for one brief moment he understands, and the urge to blow the country to pieces is almost more overwhelming than that gods damned loyalty. 

When push comes to shove, Tommy is loyal. The country he built doesn’t fall to his hands, despite how much he wants it to for a brief moment, and he sticks to Insanity’s side like old glue that’s seconds away from peeling off. 

(And gods don’t die, not until one does, and he doesn’t want to believe it until the remains of Insanity stand before him, smiling in a yellow sweater and hands stained blue, the same blue that stains a slab of stone not too far away.)

(And gods don’t die, not until one does, and for the smallest of seconds, Tommy understands why Wilbur did it. He almost follows in his footsteps, too, but he is too much of a coward and far too loyal to fall from grace as his almost-brother had.)

Tommy is loyal to a not-man who reeks of sulfur, to an old friend who has a bit too many red stains on his clothes, to a god killer who never wanted to be one. He’s loyal to a dead god, to a traitor of a friend, to people he barely knows, and he curses himself for it.

Loyalty is a blessing until it becomes a burden.


End file.
